Adult asylum seekers will no longer be offered government-provided housing upon arrival in the country, and this could last several weeks.
The Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Inclusion and Youth has confirmed it is suspending emergency housing provision for adult asylum seekers at the Citywest transit hub.
The center welcomes a large number of international protection seekers and a smaller number of Ukrainian refugees.
The center currently hosts about 800 people and the number of people hosted reached 900 last week.
It originally had a capacity of 370 beds and has 18 showers.
Minister Roderic O’Gorman has warned that the housing shortage could last until mid-February.
In a statement today, her department said: “The response to the ongoing migration crisis has now entered an extremely difficult phase, with insufficient accommodation available nationwide for international protection applicants, and the outlook for accommodation for people fleeing the war in Ukraine is also challenging,” reports RTE.
The Taoiseach told the Dáil he would like to allow a debate in the House of Representatives on the response to migrants.
Leo Varadkar was replying to Labour’s Ivana Bacik that she expressed concern that Citywest was suspending the entry of new arrivals with international protection.
Last week, UNHCR, the Irish Refugee Council and Doras Migrant Support were among the NGOs that raised concerns that such a measure could leave “large numbers of asylum seekers homeless and destitute”.
The department confirmed that the Citywest transit hub “will remain fully operational … for all other matters” including handling accommodation for Ukrainian refugees.
“The policy will be kept under review, taking account of arrivals of Ukrainian Beneficiaries of Temporary Protection and International Protection applicants and of available accommodation,” the statement said, reports RTE.
Three people were injured in a riot involving a group of men at the Hub last night.
Gardaí said two of the men were being treated in hospital for non-life-threatening injuries, while the third person did not need hospital treatment.
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